Craigslist is now a facility that people wanting to sell a car just cannot afford to ignore. Craigslist is now the 37th most popular website in the world according to Alexa’s stats http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/www.craigslist.org?p=tgraph&r=home_home. Craigslist serves around 20 billion page views per month according to their own statistics. http://www.craigslist.org/about/factsheet This web traffic could be vital to you in your quest to sell you car. In this guide we take you through the steps and teach you how to sell a car on craigslist.

The good news is that Craigslist is free to use (for selling a car) and is successfully selling cars all around the world. As with anything we would advise a degree of precaution and in particular advise reading the following Craiglist sections when selling a car (especially if you are new to Craigslist):

• Avoids scams and fraud http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams
• Personal Safety tips http://www.craigslist.org/about/safety

This guide has been split into three steps, which are summarized below:

• Step 1 – Before posting on Craig’s list – Preparation you need to take to be ready for your advertisement
• Step 2 – Write a quality detailed advertisement – Advice given on how to write a high quality detailed advertisement
• Step 3 - Post your car for sale advertisement – This details the procedure necessary to post an advertisement on Craigslist

If you follow the advice in this article, you will maximize your chances of selling your car. There are no guarantees you will sell your car, but you will have maximized your chances. The advertisement cost will be free and the advertisement post will have taken between 10 and 15 minutes.

In step 1 we provide guidance on marketing activities you should undertake before you sell your car through Craigslist. A listing on Craigslist is absolutely free, so there is little to lose in trying to sell a car in this way.

Before posting your advertisement there are a range of marketing recommendations, we can provide. Follow these to maximize the chances of selling your car and for the correct price:

• Make sure you assemble all maintenance history and receipts together into a package. This can then be presented to the new owner at time of purchase. A good maintenance history, backed by receipts can significantly increase the value of the car and can sell the car to an otherwise hesitant buyer
• Make sure the car is clean inside and out. Have the car washed and also have the car valeted inside. This too can increase the chances of selling the car
• If you have any minor bodywork on a car that has a reasonable resale value, have the work done. Repairs to bodywork will increase the resale value and also increase the likelihood of sale
• Take some photographs of your car for posting on Craigslist. Make sure you take photos from flattering angles. Ideally take a photo in bright sunlight and with no passing people/objects in the background
• Make sure the car is legal (e.g. brakes, tires, windscreen wipers, etc)
• Write down all of the main areas of specification of the car (e.g. Year, CC, Cylinders, 4WD, no of seats, style, etc). Having done this, you will have everything necessary to write a superb advertisement on Craigslist

The above are just common sense recommendations really. Be sensible, get the car into as good a condition as you can afford/the car’s resale value warrants and then you are ready to post an advertisement on Craigslist.

Step 2 specifically provides guidance on how to complete the “posting description” field, when completing a for sale entry on Craigslist. Completing this field is imperative to enticing customers to want to buy your car. You will see where this fits into the Craiglist sale process in step 3.

Advised values for a Craigslist for sale entry for a car Below we have stated the advised values and put some examples in brackets to illustrate

• Year – (e.g. 2005)
• Make – (e.g. Chrysler)
• Model (e.g. 300]])
• Automatic/Manual Gearbox (e.g. Automatic)
• Color – External (e.g. Cool Vanilla)
• Color – Interior (e.g. Deep Jade / Light Graystone)
• Air Conditioning (e.g. Yes)
• Number of doors (e.g. 4 doors)
• Mileage (e.g. 61,000)
• Maintenance Status (e.g. Full service history)
• Photos (e.g. see 4 attached photographs)
• Price (e.g. $13,500 or nearest offer)

Assembled Fictitious car advertisement entry The example below is just provided so you can see the sort of format you need to enter an advert into Craigslist.

Chrysler 300 for sale. Reg year of 2005, a 4-door model with 61,000 miles on the clock. Automatic gearbox with a cool vanilla exterior and a mixture of deep Jade / Light Graystone interior.

I have owned this car from new, so a full service history will be supplied with the car. Must be seen as in pristine condition.

Price of $13,500 secures, or nearest offer.

Golden rules of advertisement writing The golden rules of writing an advertisement are:

• If the advert answers all of the questions that you would like to know, then that is a good start
• Be truthful and honest. You do not want to end up in court over deception/fraud charges
• Write down all the specification aspects you want to include first. Then assemble your advertisement ticking off each criteria as you proceed
• Read the advertisement out audibly. Does the advertisement flow? Can it easily be read? If you find the advertisement difficult to read then so will visitors
• Always include a price; customers need to know this type of information

Following the above process should help you write a quality detailed advertisement entry.

The following is a detailed process to place a car for sale on Craigslist

1. Go to http://www.craigslist.org (N.B. if you type Craigslist.com it will divert to the .org address anyway)
2. Find your local area – Choose the city, state or country you live in
3. Click on the “Post to classifieds” in the upper left corner
4. Click on For Sale
5. Select a category – appropriate categories for car sales are:
   1. Cars and Trucks by Dealerhttps://post.craigslist.org/nyc/S/ctd/
   2. Cars and Trucks by Ownerhttps://post.craigslist.org/nyc/S/cto/
6. If applicable click a link in the “choose the area nearest you”
7. If applicable click a link in the “which of these locations fits best”
8. Enter a value in the “posting title” field
9. Enter a value in the “price” field
10. Enter an email address – You will be required to enter this twice to confirm. It is best to click the anonymize email option in order to avoid spam
11. Type in your advertisement in the “posting description” field, we detail this approach previously in step 2
12. Upload photographs in the “add/edit” images field
13. Click Continue to preview the advertisement
14. Check your advertisement in preview mode
15. Click continue to submit the advertisement
16. Next one of the two following will happen:
    1. If you have a Craigslist account already, the advertisement will typically go live in 15 minutes
    2. If this is your first transaction on Craigslist, you will be sent an e-mail to confirm. Once you confirm the requirements of the e-mail your advertisement will go live

By following the above links you will have successfully posted your car for sale advertisement.